A Sky Sketch... Jak se mat, pritel?

Our Czech Airlines Boing-737 pointed the sky with its sharp nose and flied over as a proud eagle. Green fields of the Prague outskirts were running backward as if depicting how fast the globe spins around in reality that we don’t happen to feel in our routine life.

But today isn’t too cloudy. It was even a bit too hot in Prague, so that I had to add some three more kilograms to my luggage by leaving my warm jacket in the bag. However, for the first time in my life (at least as far as I remember) I didn’t have to pay for excess luggage.

Yeah, it’s not cloudy even now when I’m typing these words on board. Just a few of white clouds swimming in the skies, that’s why our take off wasn’t too shaky. I can perfectly see the beautiful face of our Homeland – the Earth. I can see long and winding roads covered its body like arteries and veins. But I am too high to see the blood in the veins, I mean any moving objects on the roads that divide square-like settlements and pass across fields and no-man areas. And I am too far to distinguish the curving edge of the Earth that has merged and converged with horizon. Some pieces of white clouds resemble king size beds and make me feel like jumping on them and take good rest after 4 days of a busy trip. I can’t believe that I could penetrate them. They look very firm and dense and convincing. Thanks God, the windows are shut for good!

I am leaving Prague with marvellous memories of a town filled with beauty and politeness. ‘Dobry den’, ‘Dekuju’ & ‘Na shledanou’ would make a day for you in Prague. They are really magic words to be used everywhere and with anyone in Prague. A city defeated by many tribes, armies and empires. An easy prey for occupiers. They have never tried to fight against usurpers in order to keep their dazzling capital to prosper on. Nowadays one can see Hungarian, French, German, Austrian, Russian and Soviet cultural traces in Prague’s architecture and painting and that makes it even more mysterious and beautiful. Karluv most (Charles’ Bridge) over the dark Vltava resembled Moscow’s Arbat to me. And Russian could be heard all across the town with Russian-speaking shop-keepers, painters and tourists.

I was amazed by the quiet nature of the Czech people: how could the makers of the finest beer in the world be so easy going and noiseless. But last night I saw a herd of drunken desperados shouting, swearing, peeing and farting (anyway it sounded like someone was farting) as if the city was there bathroom. I approached them for a little research of rare species of the town. And would you believe me? They were swearing in London accent and no word in Czech. Desperate beer-thirsty English youth!

Prague is a mixture of Eastern and Western Europe. And Czech people are a mild polite but cold nation with a sort of embarrassment or complex of inferiority in front of a Western European, whereas unaware of their own assets and Western pitfalls. That was my short conclusion. But by and large I like Prague, I like Czechs and I like their language.